Baker Boyer wants to show leadership in the community by encouraging all businesses to urge their employees that can, to get vaccinated against COVID-19. This is seen as increasingly important as vaccines become more widely available.

“Maximizing vaccinations will enable life for everyone in Eastern Washington to get back to the new normal as rapidly as possible,” said Baker Boyer President/CEO Mark Kajita.

Baker Boyer is focusing its resources on helping the vaccine initiative through education. The Eastern Washington bank is hosting a video on its website bakerboyer.com that explains vaccines targeting COVID-19 (https://www.bakerboyer.com/coronavirus). It will also host an online forum late February with health experts on COVID-19 vaccine efforts to help businesses plan for the days ahead. Included will be:

• Daniel Kaminsky MD - Walla Walla County Public Health Officer
• Christopher Hall MD - Chief Medical Officer at Providence St. Mary’s Medical Center
• Kenneth Issacs MD - Regional Medical Director Neuroscience at Providence Spokane Neuroscience Institute

For its employees, Baker Boyer is granting each that gets vaccinated an additional two days of paid time-off for doing so.

“We all want the same thing, a healthy and safe community for all of us,” said Kajita. “Getting to the vaccination levels needed for herd immunity will help keep people safe and enable all businesses to open up so we can eventually get this pandemic behind us.”